9: Rebel Jesus

I asked my sister what her favorite Christmas carol was (and told her that she couldn't pick one that I'd already posted). She said "Oh! Rebel Jesus!" I looked perplexed until she reminded me that it's on the McGarrigle Christmas Hour - and yes, I have that. But because I am very bad at listening to the lyrics, I didn't make the connection between song title and actual song.

It is moving and apposite, and not a little subversive, written by Jackson Browne with a stanza that reads, in part:

Well we guard our world with locks and guns
And we guard our fine possessions
And once a year when Christmas comes
We give to our relations
And perhaps we give a little to the poor
If the generosity should seize us
But if any one of us should interfere
In the business of why there are poor
They get the same as the rebel Jesus

This atheist would like to say:

So I bid you pleasure
And I bid you cheer
From a heathen and a pagan
On the side of the rebel Jesus